I. South Willamette Area Planning

Jennifer Knapp, an urban designer with the Eugene planning dept. reported on the status of long range planning for for the South Willamette Special Area Zone. CIty code to implement building design standards for the South Willamette Special Area Zone is currently being finalized. The new standards aim to guide development in the area to create a more walkable and bikeable commercial zone. We also learned that the test re-striping of South WIllamette as part of the South WIllamette street improvement plan is scheduled to start spring or summer of 2015. The test will last a full year after an initial adjustment period. City Council will decide on the final configuration for South Willamette after evaluating the test results. Several board members expressed concerns about potential of negative impacts of infill on established neighborhoods.

II. Disaster Preparedness

Heather mentioned the Great Shakeout coming up on October 16. She plans to send an email to our list to encourage participation.

Lindsey Cullums shared information about the upcoming Fall CERT training class (running Oct 20 – Nov 15). There are still several openings in the class. She also informed us about “Formidable Footprint” – a series of neighborhood disaster preparedness tabletop exercises. “This series of exercises serves as an opportunity for community and faith based organizations along with governmental agencies to assess their capability to prepare for, respond to and recover from a variety of natural disasters which affect communities and neighborhoods across the United States.”

III Donald Street Repaving

Reed Dunbar with Eugene Transportation planning informed us about re-paving Donald Street from 32nd to 40th Ave, Braeburn, and 39th Ave to Hilyard and which is scheduled for 2015. There is a small budget for bicycle and pedestrian improvements to be included as part of the re-paving. Reed described a few of the proposed improvements and asked for suggestions regarding any other issues that might also be efficiently addressed along that part of Donald.

Reed also mentioned that a protected bike lane is planned for West Amazon as part of the re-paving planned for 2018. There are also plans to install additional pedestrian bridges across Amazon Creek and rebuild the Rexius Trail surface and address drainage issues.

IV Tugman Park

The next work party is scheduled for Saturday 10/25 from 9-12. We will be working without supervision from Parks Dept. Debbie Hebert volunteered to coordinate with Carrie Karl to get tools and gloves and confirm what we’ll be working on. Heather distributed reusable lawn signs to the group to help advertise the event.

V Neighborhood Survey

Len reported status of the survey which is still open and ongoing. 93 responses collected to date. Len is continuing to collate the results and has e-mailed or called each of the neighbors who provided contact information and expressed interest in attending meetings and/or otherwise volunteering their time, and informed them about upcoming meetings and our website.

VI November General Meeting

After discussion of several possible themes for the November meeting we reached a consensus on “Winter Is Coming” . We’d like to host an evening of information and discussion about preparing for and dealing with winter weather in the neighborhood. We’ll also have a dessert potluck. David will prepare a postcard mailing to announce the event. Debbie will organize the tables for the desserts. Steve will coordinate logistics.

VII Land Use

Emily reported on 2 new pending land use applications and indicated that they are not likely to be controversial.

We discussed cell phone tower regulation, touching on the recently rejected application for a new tower at Crossfire Church and considering whether to lobby the city council in support of more restrictive regulations to protect neighborhoods from inappropriate installations.

William Collinge expressed his concerns about the negative effects of cell towers on the natural environment and indicated that he supports changing Eugene code to prevent any installations within 1200 feet of any residence.

Lealan is working on a draft statement to the city council on this issue.